Pop, juice, beer and the like are generally shipped, stocked and sold naked. That is to say with their bare, aluminum or metal cans as the only barrier between the consumer and the fluid contained inside. This gives rise to the possibility of contaminants in biological, chemical and particulate form, depositing on the area of the can where the consumer either places their lips to drink, or pours the contents out into a glass.
There is a plethora of prior art in the field of can seals. These range from simple foil seals adhesively affixed across the upper rim of the can, to complex design reusable polymer lids. The problem is that many of the designs have to be put on by the canner (bottler) at their filling facility and cannot be performed at a different location by third parties (such as the store itself.) The major problem with the existing can seals is that they have but a minimal number of seals, and the seals are all of the same style. This makes a breach of the integrity of the seal quite simple. Further, most of the seals currently on the market do not protect the can's upper skirt, can be replaced after the seal has been breached, and do not indicate a breach. Non sanitary related problems are: they cant be utilized with six-pack rings; they do not allow for vertical stacking; and they can be easily dislodged in shipping and storage. Lastly, adhesively fixed seals can leave residual adhesive after the seal has been removed or can dislodge in warm weather.
A higher level of seal integrity coupled with a seal that allows for conventional shipping and storage methodology, would provide a huge leap forward in minimizing or eliminating the contaminants on the top face and side skirt of beverage cans. This can only be accomplished with a non-reusable seal having multiple sealing interfaces of differing designs that strongly affixes in a non adhesive manner to the beverage can.
Henceforth, an improved beverage can sanitary seal that would overcome the above mentioned failures of the prior art would fulfill a long felt need in the beverage industry. This new invention utilizes and combines known and new technologies in a unique and novel configuration to overcome the aforementioned problems and accomplish this.